Saturday, December 02, 2006

After graduating from Harvard Law, the then utterly unknown Obama was contacted by a bright aggressive NYC literary agent who thought - because of Obama's mixed heritage and modest background - BHO Jr might have an interesting story to tell. They signed a contract. After much work, the agent sold Obama Jr's book. It was Obama Jr's first.

After Obama Jr's pretty and pretty well-received convention speech in 2004 - (and before he was elected to the Senate) - he broke this contract with this agent, (the one who picked him up out of nowhere and got him his first book deal), in order to sign with a bigger agent, (to whom he was introduced by perjurer Bill Clinton).

Instead of being loyal to the agent who helped put him on the map, he dumped her the first chance he got, and jumped on to the roster of a bigger bigshot - who didn't have to break a sweat in order to sell Obama Jr's SECOND book! (Barack Hussein Obama Jr. eventually agreed to a settlement for breaking his contract with his first agent.)

SURE: Barack Hussein Obama Jr. does have a nice voice, and he's very loquacious. He may even seem charming to some. Nice qualities all. Essential, too, if you want a career as a singer or a game show host. But being president requires more. More than Barack Hussein Obama Junior has. It matters not what his name is; it matters only that he possess the right stuff. Obama does not.

“In one week’s time, Coalition Forces captured 11 suspected senior-level terrorists of Ansar al Sunna during a series of raids in north-central Iraq during mid-November. During the raids, Coalition Forces captured the terrorist emirs of Iraq, Ramadi, Baqubah, Tikrit, al Qa’im, Bayji and Baghdad.

They also captured two terrorist facilitators, a courier, an explosives expert and a financier. The detention of these terrorists delivers a serious blow to the AAS network that is responsible for improvised explosive device attacks and suicide attacks and on Iraqi government, Coalition Forces and Iraqi civilians. The AAS network is also responsible for multiple kidnappings, small arms attacks and other crimes in the central and northern part of Iraq. AAS is considered by some to be a leading terror organization in Iraq

… Although some AAS senior leadership allegedly hide in Iran, they continually plan attacks to disrupt Iraqi reconstruction efforts. This allows the AAS leadership to attempt to disrupt Iraqi reconstruction progress using their followers, while keeping the leadership out of harms way.”

Former IDF chief of staff, Moshe Ya’alon has departed from New Zealand, where he was on a private visit. An warrant for his arrest charging alleged war crimes was issued against him on Monday, for his part in IDF operations in PA (Palestinian Authority) controlled Gaza.

Ya’alon told Army Radio on Friday morning that he was not afraid of the warrant, adding he is pleased that the Government of New Zealand canceled the warrant and did not permit publicity seekers to use the law to benefit their motive.

The GoNZ did the right thing in canceling the specious warrant. Nevertheless, these terrorist worshipping Lefties who tried to get Ya'alon arrested need to be tried themselves for harrassing innocent army officials who're trying to defend innocent communities against violent jihadoterrorists. Perhaps Israelis should file a class-action countersuit against these Leftist jihado-enablers for seeking to make Israel less safe.

A Buenos Aires court on Friday declared former Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani and eight others fugitives from justice in Argentina, where they are wanted in connection with the 1994 bombing of a Jewish cultural center. ... Some 85 people were killed and more than 200 were injured 12 years ago when a bomb exploded in a van outside the seven-story AMIA center in the Argentine capital.

Rafsanjani and the rest of the mullah tyrants of Iran are murderers and terrorist-supporters who should all be brought to justice, indicted, convicted and executed.

An Al Qaida-aligned cell has declared war on music and the Internet in the Palestinian Authority. The group, entitled "Swords of Islam," has claimed responsibility for attacking stores that offer music and Internet. About a dozen such stores have been bombed in the Gaza Strip.

"The shops were attacked, because they occupy the minds of an entire generation of youth, who instead of spending their time in holy war and worship, serve the interests of the Jews and the Crusaders," the group said in a statement on Nov. 29. Palestinian sources said the stores were struck by rocket-propelled grenades fired by masked attackers. They said PA police did not make any arrests.

Jihadists are the enemy of everything modern and anything Western. If you believe in modernity, then you must agree that these jihadists must be wiped off the face of the earth. Humanity can either be headed for another Dark Ages or another Renaissance. It all depends on whether we win - or if they do. (YES: I think they could very well win: Europe and then Africa and then South America could all become predominantly Muslim and fully dhimmi in the next 10-20 years. To stop this from happening we must defeat the jihadists abroad, and defeat the Left - (which functions as the enemy's Fifth Column) - at home.

Meanwhile, observers say, for this only North Korean regime is to blame because of Pyongyang's restrictions on foreign relief work that led to the foreign food-aid cutbacks, and the indirect effects of international sanctions in response to its Oct. 9 nuclear test.

The U.S. cut donations to the World Food Program this year after North Korea ordered the WFP to slash the size of its mission in Pyongyang from nearly 50 people to 10 people and shut its five regional offices, from which inspectors tried to monitor distribution.

And South Korea suspended food aid on which the North depended to make up a shortfall of more than 1 million tons of rice, after the July missile tests. Nonetheless, South Korean relented when North Korea pleaded for help after severe flooding in August.

Kim would rather have nukes and starve his people, than have no nukes and people who have food. For this GENOCIDAL policy, he should be assassinated.

There's more to life than war, taxes and politics - and a lot of it's more fun, too! That's why every WEEKEND, here at THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS, we post some of the cultural things we're into, things we think you might find entertaining, enriching, and stimulating, too. Good for "Rest & Relaxation" - "R&R". After all, the arts - ALL ARTS, not just fine arts - are a big part of what our liberty is for, and what we're fighting to defend!

"SynopsisEast Berlin, November 1984. Five years before its downfall, the former East-German government ensured its claim to power with a ruthless system of control and surveillance. Party-loyalist Captain Gerd Wiesler hopes to boost his career when given the job of collecting evidence against the playwright Georg Dreyman and his girlfriend, the celebrated theater actress Christa-Maria Sieland." See info HERE and HERE and HERE.

After weeks of barely seeing each other because of our work obligations, my husband and I finally had an evening together at home on Friday evening. After dinner, we surfed our cable channels and found an oldie but a goodie: Bill Cosby's Himself. Bill Cosby's recorded live-performance may be nearly twenty-five years old, but it never fails to make me laugh. Read some of the excerpts here. But reading Cosby's comedy-routine is a poor substitute for watching the real thing! Here's a link to some audio excerpts. (His serious side HERE.)

Air passengers are to face higher taxes in a mini-Budget to be unveiled by Gordon Brown next week. The Chancellor will announce increases in air passenger duty (APD) on Wednesday in an attempt to demonstrate that the Government is serious about tackling emissions linked to global warming.

A rise in vehicle excise duty on gas-guzzling 4 x 4 vehicles is also expected.

YUP: Leftists really do believe that higher taxes will save the Earth. And for this alone they are to be considered absolutelyNUTS - eco-nutsies. Here's what rational business leaders had to say about the British Chancellor's plan:

A spokesman for British Airways said: "We are opposed to further environmental taxes because we do not think they are a very effective way of addressing the issue of climate change. "Taxation is a very blunt instrument."

A Ryanair spokesman said: "An increase in air passenger duty will do nothing to protect the environment and will only line Government coffers, while making travel more expensive for ordinary passengers."

If socialism, high taxes and a central, command economy were good for the environment, then the USSR would have been the cleanest, greenest, safest, richest industrial place on earth - a utopia. IT WAS NOT. IT WAS HELL ON EARTH, AND REMAINS AMONG THE MOST POLLUTED REGIONS ON THE PLANET.

BOTTOM-LINE: We mustn't ever let the eco-nutsies scare us into rasing taxes, nor ever cede control of the economy to them. The Left today is no different than the left has ever been: they have always sought to shackle us at home with taxes and regulations, and to have us surrender to our enemies abroad.

Remember, as I suggested last week in a discussion of why the theme of "global warming" is so important to the statist left, that Antonio Gramsci asserted that the survival of a free market society was based on "cultural hegemony," and that the communist vanguard had first of all to subvert that cultural hegemony in order to seize power. [...] The hard left understands that it must undermine, subvert, and liquidate traditional culture in order to replace all of the multitudinous relationships which form the dense network of family and community life with a univocal culture in which every nexus of human contact is mediated by the state.

Nine days later, on November 30th, Selwyn Duke wrote an excellent piece in the American Thinker (linked to by PJM) about how many on the Left use the phrase: "This is not free speech, this is hate speech!" in order to convince the public over time that hate speech is in a different catagory and not protected speech. He writes:

Oh, you think it won't work? To a great degree it's already a fait accompli. After decades of positioning (this refers to Italian Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci'sidea about the placement of leftist ideologues in positions of influence for the purposes of altering the culture), with social engineers in academia, the media, entertainment and various organizations and activist groups, it isn't uncommon to find Americans possessed of this lie. I myself have met them, and even pundit Bill O'Reilly uttered this misconception on his cable television show. Remember, as eighteenth century philosopher William James said, "There is nothing so absurd but if you repeat it often enough people will believe it."

Minneapolis radio station KDWB’s host Dave Ryan asked if people would trade a baby for a PS3. He didn’t expect that he would have any takers. He was mistaken.

The station received many calls offering to trade a baby for the PS3 system. The station started with just the offer: trade a baby (for a while) for a PS3. Then, after they received such a high response, they started an “auction” to get the youngest baby for the longest time… The parents were told that they could not check up on the welfare of the child and they were also told that the station did not have a child safety seat for the car.

These parents were still willing to trade their child. The “winner” was a one month old baby for three days (no children or PS3’s were traded).

Now, let's be honest, these parents are justifying this in their mind by telling themselves that the radio station can't afford the negative publicity that would come along with any neglect. However, while that might be true, it is also true that there is all sorts of abuse that can be levelled on a pre-verbal infant, which the parent would never be aware of.

In other words, these parents are willing to expose their babies to the possibility of sexual abuse, shaking and all sorts of other horrors.

People who work for radio stations (especially the types that do this kind of comedy bit) are not the straightest cues in the rack. Most of us wouldn't leave an older child unattended with such people even for fifteen minutes. One wonders what these people would do for a new Mercedes, or a house in a gated community. Oh wait, people already do leave their children with strangers for such baubles, don't they? You know, it's called Day Care.

The chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors yesterday nixed plans to bar residents from cooking food in home and church kitchens and donating it to homeless shelters. He blamed overzealous county employees for a policy that made Fairfax the subject of nationwide ridicule....

In dozens of comments on the Washington Post's Web site, readers vented indignation over the ban on home-cooked food, calling it "idiocy," the product of a "bungling bureaucracy" and accusing the county of trying to block the faith community's efforts to help the poor....

For as long as I can remember, local churches in Fairfax County have provided delicious homemade meals for those less-advantaged. In fact, during the Thanksgiving/Christmas seasons, such service has traditionally been a large part of local custom, also involving the serving of the food by schoolchildren.

Fairfax County deserved national ridicule on this one. But if objections had not been voiced, those homemade meals would've been scrapped. For my own part, I'd rather eat a meal prepared by the Church of the Brethren than my own cooking!

U.S. military and intelligence officials tell ABC News that they have caught shipments of deadly new bombs at the Iran-Iraq border. ... U.S. officials say roadside bomb attacks against American forces in Iraq have become much more deadly as more and more of the Iran-designed and Iran-produced bombs have been smuggled in from the country since last October.

"I think the evidence is strong that the Iranian government is making these IEDs, and the Iranian government is sending them across the border and they are killing U.S. troops once they get there," says Richard Clarke, former White House counterterrorism chief and an ABC News consultant. "I think it's very hard to escape the conclusion that, in all probability, the Iranian government is knowingly killing U.S. troops." ...

John Negroponte, director of national intelligence, testified before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Februrary 2, saying, "Tehran's intention to inflict pain on the United States and Iraq has been constrained by its caution to avoid giving Washington an excuse to attack it."

[As I wrote then:] Well, that EXCUSE is gonzo, baby: THIS IS AN ACT OF WAR! WE MUST COUNTER-ATTACK!

... new, more sophisticated roadside bombs used to attack American and government forces in Iraq have been designed in Iran and shipped in from there, United States military and intelligence officials said Friday, raising the prospect of increased foreign help for Iraqi insurgents. ... "These are among the most sophisticated and most lethal devices we've seen," said the senior officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the delicate intelligence reports describing the bombs. "It's very serious."

If this it is true, then BOLTON should demand and emergency session of the UNSC and provide the world with evidence, and then demand that the Iranian government close it's border with Iraq or we they will be hit with UN sanctions, and a USA ultimatum: if there is another shipment of IED's into Iraq, then we will attack Iran militarily - destroying ALL their military assets.

On October 25th, 1962 JFK authorized Adlai Stevenson to present photographic evidence on the Russian nukes and to be VERY tough with the Soviets when we discovered the USSR missiles in Cuba. Bush should authorize Bolton to be just as forthcoming (and also to show proof of the claim) and just as tough: by issuing an the above ultimatum to Iran.

Why have a rottweiler like Bolton if we don't use him!?

We should give an ultimatum to Iran's president, Armegeddon-nutjob, and if he fails to respond correctly, then attack Iran. JFK would have the balls to do it. So would Truman. DOES DUBYA?

Thursday, November 30, 2006

Cattle-rearing generates more global warming greenhouse gases, as measured in CO2 equivalent, than transportation, according to a new United Nations report released on Thursday. "Livestock are one of the most significant contributors to today's most serious environmental problems," senior UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) official Henning Steinfeld was quoted by the Ghana News Agency as saying on Thursday.

"Urgent action is required to remedy the situation," he said in a statement released by the UN Information Centre in Accra. According to the report, smarter production methods, including improved animal diets to reduce enteric fermentation and consequent methane emissions, are urgently needed. ...

"With increased prosperity, people are consuming more meat and dairy products every year," the report notes.

Cow Farts. Not SUV's.

So now, will the Left and the eco-nutsies attack cattle ranchers, dairy farmers and McDonald's, and pass laws forcing us to eat chicken or become vegetarians? I bet they try.

As blogger "Mark in Mexico" is reporting, the situation in Oaxaca has degenerated into open rioting, and some of the supporters of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) are openly promising to use violence to prevent the newly elected president's inauguration, and then to make Mexico completely ungovernable.

As the Washington Post reports, this year there have been thousands of brutal drug-related killings in a widespread gangland war, and many citizens feel their country has become lawless.

An ungovernable Mexico degenerating into a chaotic civil war would pose grave problems for the United States.

You think 1,000 illegal border crossings a day is a problem?

What will you do when hundreds of thousands of refugees from a Mexican civil war crush the border crossings at Tijuana and El paso, clamoring for a humanitarian rescue?

Can we absorb one million next year? Two? Stay tuned . . .

[Note: All the photos link to related news items. From top left to right: Leftist legislators attempting to prevent Calderon from taking the oath of office; defeated Leftist, Obrador, at his "alternative" swearing-in ceremony; Calderon - the legally elected president of Mexico; Panhco Villa.]

Detectives have discovered when the former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko came into contact with the radioactive material that was to kill him. After retracing the route taken by Mr Litvinenko on the day he fell ill, anti-terrorist officers believe the ex-KGB agent was poisoned in or very close to the sushi bar in central London that he visited to meet an Italian contact on 1 November.

... Scotland Yard pinpointed the sushi bar when they traced Mr Litvinenko's movements after he left his home in Muswell Hill, north London. By using information from his mobile phone records, Oyster travel card and CCTV footage, detectives plotted his route to Piccadilly Tube station. Locations where he stopped along the way were tested for radiation contamination, but all proved negative.

... In a further development it was disclosed that extremely low-level radioactive contamination has been discovered in nine buildings, two British Airways planes which flew to Moscow [umph added], and a car used to take Mr Litvinenko to hospital. A third BA aircraft is being examined in Moscow.

As part of the inquiry detectives are testing aircraft used by several people that met Mr Litvinenko on 1 November to discover if any of them brought in radioactive material, or left Britain contaminated.

Three Russian businessmen, employees of a security company in Moscow, who met Mr Litvinenko at a hotel after he had been to the sushi bar had yesterday gone to ground. It is not clear if they were in hiding, or were being questioned by the Russian authorities.

One of the men, former FSB bodyguard Andrei Lugovoy who had known Mr Litvinenko for 10 years, was in charge of security for the former Russian prime minister, Yegor Gaidar [umph added], who was last night being treated for suspected poisoning after falling ill in Dublin.

It seems to me that Lugovoy is probably a double-agent actually working for Putin. And it seems to me that Putin agents used polonium to make sure the murder sent a powerful messaage to all former agents and would be foes. And I find it fascinating that Gaidar retuned to Moscow for treatment, instead of going to London or Paris or NY or anywhere else. Perhaps he actually returned for a secret antidote - given to him only after Putin's agents extracted a secret or a promise.

[NOTE: Here're a few reasons why I put a jpeg of Machiavelli next to that weird one of Putin kissing a boy's stomach (quotes from The Prince):

"If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared. ... Since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved. ... Politics have no relation to morals. ... The new ruler must determine all the injuries that he will need to inflict. He must inflict them once and for all."]

Great Britain is suffering from many of the same social deficiencies that plague the U.S. In brief, as illegitimacy and the Platonic socialist state which facilitates it increase, more and more fatherless boys raised by single mothers supported by the dole become sociopathic criminals.

"I hope the men who left those boys’ mothers to bring them up alone are reflecting on their own responsibility this week."

Very good, David. That's the way the leader of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland should respond to the two remorseless teenagers who are believed responsible for 150 muggings in addition to the knife murder of a young lawyer for his cell phone: "hope" that their fathers are "reflecting on their own responsibility this week."

What do you think the chance of that is? And what good will it do, now?

An Ethiopian military convoy in Somalia has been ambushed by fighters loyal to the powerful Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), witnesses said on Thursday. It happened on Tuesday 35km south-west of Baidoa, seat of the weak interim government, who deny it took place. Eyewitness said a truck was blown up and there was an exchange of fire. The UIC claim about 20 Ethiopians died.

Neither anicent jooooze, or the "GREAT SATAN", or Bush can be blamed for this jihadist violence. Not here. Not in Thailand either - where nearly 2000 have been murdered by islamisis since 2004, and wher the killing continues despite offers of detente and appeasement from the junta.

SO HOW WILL WE STOP IT?! Hmmm... how 'bout we send James Baker and Jimmy Carter to engage in dialog with the enemy. That'll do it. Yeah. Sure. Heh.

(Which reminds me: I LOVE how the Left simultaneoulsy believes we DESERVED 9/11 and it was an inside job, and we can dialog with an enemy which would perp such an act. THE LEFT IS SO SO SO SO SO EFFED UP!!)

One of Iran's most senior clergymen has issued a fatwa on an Azeri writer said to have insulted the Prophet Muhammad. The call on Muslims to murder Rafiq Tagi, who writes for Azerbaijan's Senet newspaper, echoes the Iranian fatwa against Indian writer Salman Rushdie.

And then Muslims wonder why we think that Islam is sick!? Or they DARE to call us prejudiced when we are ESPECIALLY suspicious of them!? Sheesh. The folks ordering this MURDER are not a bunch of know-nothings; they're the freakin EXPERTS in an Islamic state! They know that are not disobeying Islam when they order murders like this. They are being devoutly Islamic. And simply EVIL.

France's Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy has declared his intention to run for the presidency next April. ... Mr Sarkozy has been dubbed the French Margaret Thatcher, someone who will shake up the country, says the BBC's Clive Myrie, in Paris.

Liberian teenager who claims she was raped by UN peacekeeper This Liberian teenager claims she became pregant following abuse Children have been subjected to rape and prostitution by United Nations peacekeepers in Haiti and Liberia, a BBC investigation has found. Girls have told of regular encounters with soldiers where sex is demanded in return for food or money.

A senior official with the organisation has accepted the claims are credible.

PROVING ONCE AGAIN: The UN is a freakin cesspool of corruption and anti-Semitism. BTW: Kofi ran this part of the UN before becoming the worst UNSG ever.

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Some question whether we should care if Europe succumbs to either homegrown fascism or islamofascism. (OR BOTH: Europe might just as easily divide into nations which become dominated by islamofascism and nations dominated by nativist-fascism.)

The people who feel that Europe is doomed and "good riddance", are in my opinion, victims of post-modernism - that vile, corrosive and ultimately anti-rational ideology which has ruled the Western academy since WW1, and which propounds that Western Civilization in general, and Europe in particular, have been largely a scourge on the planet, and to the rest of the people on it. This is bullsh*t; [see post below.]

Western Civilization - our Judeo-Christian values, our modern, rational, and enlightened use of science, engineering, technology and industry - has lifted most of humanity out of the bonds of slavery and the degradation of tyranny, and into polities which have afforded us all more liberty and ever imporving standards of living. As the Third World has adopted Western Civilization's UNIVERSAL principles and free markets and capitalism and industrialism, (all products of the West), they have lifted themsevles out of bondage and poverty.

Yes, yes, yes, we know: The struggle has been very costly. All the more reason to protect our gains, our hard-won gains - hard-won over the last 1000 years. If we want the next thousand to be better we must NOT let Europe turn back the clock - or rather the calendar! Not to ANY form of fascism.

Besides, a free and Western European continent is worth fighting for (despite the wars) because Europe has produced some truly great, beautiful, and transcendent works. Works which not only justify Europe, but humanity.

Need some examples? Here's one. Here's another. And another. And another. And another. And another. And another. And another. And another. And another. And so on. So YES, YES, YES: I think Europe MUST be saved, because if the enemy wins, then these works will go the way of the Alexandrian Library. And the West will vanish. It's light will fade. Darkness will return. As Churchill said:

"The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war.

If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad sunlit uplands.

But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age ..."

Multiculturalism and political correctness are two of the fundamental pseudo-intellectual, quasi-religious tenets-- along with a third: radical environmentalism--that have been widely disseminated by intellectuals unable to abandon socialism even after its crushing failures in the 20th century. These tenets have been slowly, but relentlessly absorbed at all levels of Western culture in the last decade or so--but primarily since the end of the Cold War.

All three have been incorporated into most K-12 curricula and all other learning environments. They have been at the forefront of attempts by leading academics and academic institutions to rewrite most of history and undo thousands of years of Western cultural advancement. And further, as the culture has been completely saturated with this toxic brew, any attempt to question the tenets' validity or to contest their value is met with hysterical accusations of racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia, imperialism, bigotry, or--worse of all --intolerance or insensitivity.

It just so happens, that these tenets represent three of the four pillars that are the foundation of an evolving epistemological, ethical and political strategy that the socialist remnants in the world have developed and are using to prevent their ideology from entering the dustbin of history.

... The rise of neoconservatism represents the only modern intellectual counter and the only known antidote to the infection of postmodernism and its resultant toxic effects on philosophy, rehtoric, and politics.

... By disgarding reason and reality; by abandoning the past and embracing moral and cultural relativism, the left has brought us to this place where we are morally and physically paralyzed and cannot distinguish between the deliberate targeting and killing of innocents and the accidental killing of innocents despite herculean efforts to avoid it; between waging war to give people a chance at freedom and democracy; and waging war for domination and imperialism; between standing up for what is right and accepting the consequences, and abandoning one's values and surrendering with "honor" to the scum of the earth.

... by equating Bush with Hitler; or the behavior of the Palestinians with the behavior of the Israelis; the actions of the U.S. military with the actions of the Islamofanatic terrorist thugs-- the left is desperately trying to numb the mind of the West. Who are we to judge? they scream, desperately trying to prevent history from judging their own unbelievable and pathological destructiveness, their own morally repugnant behavior and ideology.

... Just as the Saudis have let the wahabbi religious fundamentalism genie out of the bottle, inflicting it on Islam; so too has the political left let loose the genie of postmodern moral relativism onto Western civilization. The two genies have much in common since both work in tandem to destroy the human mind and spirit. Islamic fundamentalism is actively destroying millions by its soul-murdering ideology; while postmodern nihilists apologize and enable the barbarians at the gate , even as they destroy the very ideas that built the gate in the first place and which offers the only hope for liberating those millions from the boot of fanatical oppression. [Umph added!]

... The left must be held to account for their malignantly narcissistic behavior. Envy is their dominant emotion; mediocrity and dragging humanity down to the lowest common denominator is their goal; tyranny and oppression is their modus operandi; and the greatest threat to their ideology is human freedom.

And those are precisely the reasons why neoconservative philosophy can rescue the West from the quagmire of moral and cultural nihilism that paralyzes us and limits our ability to fight the enemies of civilization.

The Doctor diagnoses the problem, perfectly: Modernity and the West are under assault on two fronts, by two pernicious, amoral foes. We can help defeat them both. We must if we want our modern Judeo-Christian Western civilization to persist. If we fail, our civilization will vanish from the earth.

Baker's ISG report evidenty recommends we go easier on our enemies, and get tougher with our allies. That's a recipe for failure. And it's immoral. T.A.T.:

More worrisome than Baker's tete a tete with Iran's Ambassador is the apparent fact, also disclosed by the Washington Post, that Ray Close, a former CIA hand, has been one of the "experts' the ISG has relied upon in formulating its recommendations. Anyone familiar with the ways of Washington (as Baker surely must be) would be aware that Close has a very checkered past regarding his opinion of our ally Israel, and has made comments regarding American Jews that can be characterized as anti—Semitic.

AMMAN (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki flew to Jordan for crisis talks with President Bush on Wednesday, prompting a radical Shi'ite faction to suspend participation in his government in anger. Iranian-backed cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who leads the Mehdi Army militia, was making good on a threat to boycott parliament and Maliki's coalition if the premier met the U.S. president.

AMMAN, Jordan - President Bush's high-profile meeting with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Wednesday was canceled in a stunning turn of events after disclosure of U.S. doubts about the Iraqi leader's capabilities and a political boycott in Baghdad protesting his attendance. Instead of two days of talks, Bush and al-Maliki will have breakfast and a single meeting followed by a news conference on Thursday morning, the White House said.

The abrupt cancellation was an almost unheard-of development in the high-level diplomatic circles of a U.S. president, a king and a prime minister. White House counselor Dan Bartlett denied that the delay was a snub by al-Maliki directed at Bush or was related to the leak of a memo written by White House National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley questioning the prime minister's capacity for controlling violence in Iraq.

No, I don't think Bush did snub Maliki. I think Maliki snubbed Bush. What do you think?

Reliapundit adds: If these reports are true - and that's a big if - then it means that Iran effectively controls the Iraqi federal government. If this is not reversible, then it means we should support the Kurds seceding - and declaring an independent republic, and then we should reposition our troops there - at their invitation. We can use these troops and bases - along with our bases in Afghanistan, and our fleet in the Gulf nearby - to attack and demolish the military, industrial, and nuclear assets of Iran. And we must do this no later than December 2008.

Why the rush? Well, LGF's interpretation of Ahmadinejad's letter to American citizens is correct: this is clearly a jihadist threat and indicates that they intend to destroy the USA - the Great Satan - and Israel AS SOON AS THEY CAN. If we do not preempt, then we will be attacked. I believe we should therefore preempt. This will demolish Iran's ability to project power, and thereby neutralize Syria, and Hizballah, and thus save the entire Middle East. YES: ENTIRE MIDDLE EAST. The entire Middle East has long been targeted by the jihadists: Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and even Turkey have long been targeted. A failure in Iraq will aid the enemy everywhere else.

In Riga, Bush said he'd be flexible with his strategy in Iraq, changing it as conditions there change, but that U.S. troops would stay as long as needed.

"There's one thing I'm not going to do: I'm not going to pull our troops off the battlefield before the mission is complete," he said during a speech at Latvia University's Grand Hall. "We can accept nothing less than victory for our children and our grandchildren."

But now it's time Bush backed these words up with actions. If he doesn't, then I must conclude that "Dubya" stands for wobbly and wimp and waste; (MORE ON THIS LATER - AFTER THE POTUS RETURNS TO THE STATES).

Or - as RICK BALLARD asks: "I wonder when Grant and Sherman will be brought in to replace Casey and Abizaid? Soon, I hope."

If you thought that the Hamas only had rockets stored in Gaza, think again:

As Hamas wins a ceasefire from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert despite the group’s continued firing of Kassam missiles, the Fatah group has announced it also has missiles, in Samaria.

Fatah’s Al-Aksa Brigade displayed the new missiles, which the group calls Jundalla (meaning Allah’s soldiers), at a press conference held for the foreign wire services Tuesday.

Rockets in Judea and Samaria would potentially put cities in the coastal plain, Israel’s International Airport, as well as Jerusalem, all within striking range (illustrative photo above). The Fatah terrorists, located in Palestinian Authority-assigned Shechem (Nablus), said that they were prepared to begin firing the rockets at Israeli towns.

At the press conference, to which Arab correspondents working for Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France Presse were invited, twenty members of the terrorist group brandished at least four of the new rockets. The five-foot long rockets have a range of more than two miles and carry at least 6.6 pounds of explosives, the terrorists claimed.

“People often point to our nations inability to tolerate losses on the battlefield as one of the decisive factors in warfare in the modern age that is defeating the western world; but few take the time to think that we are also being defeated because we have chosen a strategy of not inflicting losses on the enemy.”

I'd only add that we have also not inflicted enough loss on the RIGHT TARGETS: Hizballah, Hamas; Syria; and IRAN. Especially Iran. Iran has not paid a penny for their support for their proxies or their illegal nuclear efforts. It's passed time they did. In spades.

The patriarch of a pakistani family was aquitted of ordering the murder of his daughter. But the group of men who beat the patriarch's son with cricket bats were convicted of perpetrating the violent assault. And the 72 year old patriarch received a 6 month sentence for planning that attack. Why does a 72 year old man demand that his own son be beaten to near death? The son claimed in court that he was punished because he refused to kill his sister as his father demanded. Now thats what I call Family Values!!!

Former Peanut Farmer Jimmy Carter is quoted in the press as predicting that the present invasionof Iraq will go down as one of history's greatest failures - at least as far as Presidential decisions are concerned. Don't you just love the way some people believe they can already tell you how history will be INTERPRETED before it has even TRANSPIRED?!?! Sort of reminds me of the teachings of a German Philosopher that have been used by fanatics and academics alike to tell us what the social fabric of the world will be like in the future.

From a historical perspecitve, one thing already is clear: If Jimmy Carter had just one of Lady Thatcher's Testicles the world would be far more safer today. Iraq will only be a failure if the west abandons the field and allows the enemy to assume power. And Jimmy: the enemy is the same bunch of fanatics that you backed down from in 1979! (you should recognize him in the photo above left...)

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Most of the violence in Iraq is in Anbar and Baghdad. I think the violence in Baghdad is organized and retributory and as old as Islam itself; FACT: Shias and Sunnis have been killing each other since their prophet died. And it's a FACT that al Qaeda deliberately blew up the Golden Mosque in order to ignite this strife and inflame this old schism. Intercepted al Qaeda communiques prove this.

And I ask: SHOULD WE CARE? After all, the worst elements in Iraq are mostly killing each other, and in a way, this is what a Richard Price character described as a "self-cleaning oven." (Price's character was describing a crime-ridden city in New Jersey. Others have used the term to desribe how AIDS was killing all the criminal intravemous drug addicts in the Bronx some years ago.)

But sadly, in Iraq many innocent people are being killed too. And so too may die the nascent democracy in Iraq - which was, after all, the goal of al Qaeda when they ignited this violence. Which proves that stifling the sectarian strife is merely one battle, one campaign in the global war against jihadism. A war which will last generations. These are the only reasons we must care.

The solution rests with us and the Iraqis: in how well and how soon the Iraqis clamp down; and in how we deal with Syria and Iran - who are stoking the flames in Iraq in order to prevent us from dealing with their misdeeds and their hegemony.

The Iraqis will have a better chance if we help them, so we must stay and fight. But ultimately, we must CONFRONT Iran, who also backs both Syria and Hizballah. These three together are seeking to do to regionally - in Lebanon and Israel (and soon again in Jordan and Egypt) - what they are trying to do in Iraq.

There is no more critical battle in this war. Nor any more critical moment. We mustn't blink. We must keep fighting. The only way we can lose the war is if we lose our resolve. The enemy is counting on the Left and the MSM to demoralize us and cause us to lose resolve. So, in addition to confronting the jihadists in Tehran, we must confront the Left and the MSM at home. Confront them and defeat them. As I've been saying for a long time: To defeat the jihadist enemy abroad we must defeat the Leftists at home.

In his book Islam in Britain, Patrick Sookhdeo, director of the Institute for the Study of Islam and Christianity, says there is an "alternative parallel unofficial legal system" that operates in the Muslim community on a voluntary basis.

"Sharia courts now operate in most larger cities, with different sectarian and ethnic groups operating their own courts that cater to their specific needs according to their traditions," he says. These are based on sharia councils, set up in Britain to help Muslims solve family and personal problems.

Although these courts operate at the present time "on a voluntary basis," a precedent is being established.

If (or when) gangs of violent youths make it impossible for representatives of the British Government to intervene in Muslim neighborhoods (as it is now impossible for French police in 751 "zones urbaines sensibles," or for Swedish police in some areas of Malmo), then sharia law will be the only law.

In effect, these neighborhoods are no longer part of Britain, but rather, as Daniel Pipes puts it, the more precise name for these zones would be Dar al-Islam, the place where Muslims rule."

A large proportion of the tens of millions of Muslims who have moved to Europe in the past 25 years were not immigrants after all; they aresettlers.

UPDATE/10:20PM: Relipaundit adds: This was posted here BEFORE it was posted at the GREAT LGF! Proving once again that the place to be is T.A.B.!

Pope Benedict has reversed himself on Turkey's entrance to the EU; NYTIMES:

Pope Benedict XVI came to Turkey on Tuesday carrying a surprise gesture of goodwill aimed at blunting Muslim anger toward him: he blessed Turkey’s long-stalled desire to join the European Union, reversing his position of two years ago.

This time, the Muslim horde will just emigrate and colonize Europe instead of assaulting Europe with war and terror - as it did the past. Soon - in our lifetimes - all of Europe might very well resemble the banlieues of Paris. Notre Dame might go the way of the Hagia Sophia - and become a mosque, and Paris ... Paristanbul. Islam is already the most widely practiced religion in much of atheistic, post-modern Europe. This will only increase after Turkey's admission to the EU, when Turks have free reign to resetlle ANYWHERE in the EU.SARKOZY (Expatica/AFP):

French presidential hopeful Nicolas Sarkozy said Turkey's entry into the European Union would "be the end of political Europe" and suggested it would worsen the "problem" of Muslim integration in the continent, in an interview to be published Thursday.

"It would be the end of political Europe" if Turkey joined the European bloc, Sarkozy, France's interior minister, told the magazine Le Meilleur des Mondes, calling instead for a "privileged partnership" with the EU's southeastern neighbour. ... "We have a problem of integration of Muslims which raises the issue of Islam in Europe. To say it is not a problem is to hide from reality. If you let 100 million Turkish Muslims come in, what will come of it?" the magazine quoted him as saying.

The minister, who heads the ruling right-wing UMP party and has declared he will run for president in next year's elections, also expressed concern that shifting Europe's border southeast would bring it closer to violent conflicts in the region.

"Turkey is in Asia Minor... I will not explain to little French school children that the frontiers of Europe are Iraq and Syria," Sarkozy said, naming two of Turkey's southeastern neighbours.

Bravo! Obviously, this manknows his geography, his history, AND his current events! BRAVO! I wish the Pope was as courageous as Sarkozy.

Rev. Jesse Jackson, congresswoman Maxine Waters and other black leaders in the United States have challenged entertainers — including rappers — to stop using the "n-word."

"We want to give our ancestors a present … dignity over degradation," Jackson said at a news conference in Los Angeles on Monday. He and a group that included Waters, a Democrat legislator from Los Angeles, and comedian Paul Mooney have begun a campaign against the racial slur that they plan to take to TV networks, film companies and musicians over the next few weeks.

The Stalinists are back! You just knew when Michael Richards handed Jackson the ball he would run with it. Jackson is also calling for a boycott of Seinfeld Season 7. I don't approve of Michael Richards said at the Laugh Factory, but free speech is free speech, and if Jesse Jackson says not to buy something, you better believe I'll be buying it.

Nobody really thinks those Imam-provocateurs in Minneapolis were simply engaging in the nervous pre-flight prayers that are probably common to many airline passengers, particularly since September 11th. But the idea that they were merely trying to cause a ruckus and garner publicity for the claim that Muslims are being unfairly targeted is also, I think, incorrect.

Muslim religious leaders removed from a Minneapolis flight last week exhibited behavior associated with a security probe by terrorists and were not merely engaged in prayers, according to witnesses, police reports and aviation security officials.

Specifically:

Passengers and flight attendants told law-enforcement officials the imams switched from their assigned seats to a pattern associated with the September 11 terrorist attacks and also found in probes of U.S. security since the attacks -- two in the front row first-class, two in the middle of the plane on the exit aisle and two in the rear of the cabin. "That would alarm me," said a federal air marshal who asked to remain anonymous. "They now control all of the entry and exit routes to the plane." A pilot from another airline said: "That behavior has been identified as a terrorist probe in the airline industry."

By engaging in patterns of behavior which they evidently knew were considered by airlines and federal air marshals to indicate an imminent terrorist operation, the imams were inviting their removal from the flight. Their purpose in then claiming discrimination is to make it impossible, or at least much more difficult, for the airlines to remove Muslim passengers who do the things that terrorists are expected to do.

In other words, the imams took an action calculated to make it more difficult for the airlines and the TSA to prevent another terrorist attack on American airliners.

Al Qaeda and its ilk still desire to commit another mass-murder atrocity involving American airliners. These six imams were helping to lay the groundwork for that attack. They should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chávez is an ally of the Iranian mullahs, a supporter of North Korea, a close friend of Fidel Castro and a good customer for Vladimir Putin's weapon factories. Now he's also a business partner of Joseph P. Kennedy II. ...

Massachusetts Democrats seem especially eager to help. In a September 29, 2005, "confidential memorandum" addressed to "President Hugo Chávez" and uncovered by a Congressional committee, William Delahunt (D., Mass.) gushed that it was a "pleasure" to have met with the strongman "to discuss your generous offer." The Democrat advised Mr. Chávez to steer his oil through Mr. Kennedy's nonprofit and declared that "from a public relations perspective" the discount oil scheme "is an extraordinary opportunity to address urgent needs of people living in poverty, while showcasing the compassion of your nation."

[UPDATE: BUMPED UP] - This "BIRDS OF A FEATHER" routine might become a running series. Earlier in the week I posted about the Vonnegut/Kerry flock. Now it's CHAVEZ AND KENNEDY; WASHPOST:

"... Venezuela's state-owned oil company will supply oil at 40 percent below market prices. It will be distributed by two nonprofit organizations, Citizens Energy Corp. and the Mass Energy Consumer Alliance. ... U.S. Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass., met with Chavez in August and helped broker the deal. ... Joseph P. Kennedy II is chairman and president of Citizens Energy Corp. ... The agreement gives President Hugo Chavez's government standing as a provider of heating assistance to poor U.S. residents."

There was a time when another Kennedy - a noble NEO-CON Kennedy known as president JFK - FOUGHT central American and Carribean dictators, just as Reagan would two decades later. Now the LEFT-WING REMNANTS of the once proud Kennedy clan is reduced to being PR tools of dangerous socialist tyrants. JFK AND RFK MUST BE SPINNING IN THEIR GRAVES!

This says something important about NOT ONLY the state of the Kennedy clan, but of the American Left they lead; it says they have jumped the shark. They equate the Sunni jihadoterrorists with our "Minutemen" and help tyrants get good PR. Shameless. What a pity. More HERE and HERE and (on a regular basis) HERE.

Pastorius, a regular commenter, earlier noted this: "Isn't it amazing that Leftists can't pull their head up out of the sand, once in awhile, and look around, and see who their friends are?" I agree: The Left should look around and see who they stand with: when it comes to withdrawing from Iraq they stand with ZARQAWI; one of their biggest HOLYWOOD supporters - Michael Moore, and another literary one - Kurt Vonnegut openly LAUD AND APPLAUD the jihadoterrorists; and now, their prized aristocracy - the Kennedy's - openly and unabashedly do PR for the hemisphere's most dangerous tyrant - Hugo Chavez. YUP: the Left should look around, and then look in the mirror!

THEN AGAIN, maybe I shouldn't be surprised; after all, this comes from the folks who fear AshKKKroft more than Binladen! Heh! UPDATE: MORE HERE. More HERE from the great ECONOPUNDIT.

This proves once again that T.A.B. is the place to be!

BTW: This post was the first of my "BIRDS OF A FEATHER" POSTS. Each post relates to a news event which reveals the convergence of Leftism and Jihadism. They now total about 31!

According to a November 28, 2006 article in the Washington Times, firing illegal immigrants is discriminatory:

A Mississippi Democrat in line to become chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee has warned the nation's largest uniform supplier it faces criminal charges if it follows a White House proposal to recheck workers with mismatched Social Security numbers and fire those who cannot resolve the discrepancy in 60 days.

Rep. Bennie Thompson said in a letter to Cintas Corp. it could be charged with "illegal activities in violation of state and federal law" if any of its 32,000 employees are terminated because they gave incorrect Social Security numbers to be hired.

"I am deeply troubled by Cintas' recent policy change regarding the Social Security Administration's 'no match' letters," Mr. Thompson said in the Nov. 2 letter. "It is my understanding that hundreds of Cintas' immigrant workers have received these letters. I am extremely concerned about any potentially discriminatory actions targeting this community."...

Complying with immigration laws and regulations is discrimination?

[Hat-tip to Raven for calling my attention to the above article in the Washington Times]

It looks like there may be hope for Venezuela. A colossal protest came out against Chavez in Caracas. Venezuela News & Views has a video, and V-Crisis has some news too (Hat tip: Gateway Pundit). Despite Chavez's roadblocks, it did not stop the turnout. With any luck, Iran won't be able to rely on Chavez as an ally in evil.